OpenSea freezes 16 Ape NFTs, worth ~$2.3M, after they were reportedly stolen, leading some to point out the lack of decentralization in the NFT space
Art gallery owner Todd Kramer had his valuable NFT collection stolen from his hot wallet yesterday, so OpenSea froze the stolen assets worth about $2.2 million.
CointelegraphBrian Newar
Context & Ripple Effects
OpenSea, which raised a $100M Series B at a $1.5B valuation last summer, has spent months under fire from crypto hardliners over its Web3 credentials — a tension captured in Wired UK's profile of the company as it grapples with security incidents and copycat NFTs. The freeze of Todd Kramer's 16 stolen Ape NFTs is that tension made concrete: the marketplace can act like a central bank of JPEGs, unilaterally halting ~$2.3M in assets on-chain.
The move lands alongside Cent halting transactions over minted content users don't own, showing marketplaces across the NFT stack exercising centralized control to contain theft and plagiarism.
First-order effects
OpenSea can now unilaterally block trading of ~$2.3M in Bored Ape and Mutant Ape assets, effectively deciding who can sell what on the largest NFT marketplace.
Todd Kramer's stolen collection is quarantined, but the freeze also demonstrates to every OpenSea seller that their assets are tradable only at the platform's discretion.
Second-order effects
Crypto-native critics use the freeze as evidence OpenSea is a centralized gatekeeper, pressuring the marketplace to justify its control powers while competitors can pitch themselves as permissionless alternatives.
The incident feeds the broader backlash over stolen and plagiarized NFTs that pushed OpenSea executives to publicly acknowledge the problem and outline trust-building steps, including hiring more staff, as covered in the June NYT report.
Third-order effects
If marketplaces keep exercising freeze powers to contain theft, the NFT market's de facto governance becomes platform policy rather than smart-contract code — 'decentralized' assets with centralized choke points.
The pattern points toward marketplaces being treated as accountable intermediaries, with the same expectations for recourse and content control that govern traditional exchanges, regardless of the underlying blockchain's neutrality.
The trend: NFT marketplaces are consolidating into de facto centralized intermediaries whose unilateral controls, not blockchains, determine what holders can actually do with their assets.
@toddkramer1 Who was able to freeze the nfts? Feels pretty anti crypto to be asking third parties to do this and ideally they shouldn't be able to. This was just extremely poor opsec on your part. True decentralized ownership no one should be able to step in. Good luck.
@grady_booch
Grady Booch on x
@toddkramer1 Silly me. And here I thought that the code is the law and that one of the very ideas of cryptocurrencies was the elimination of any possibility of centralized intervention. Hypocrites; everyone of you.
@swiftonsecurity
@swiftonsecurity on x
Local man with homemade sex doll “worth 60 million dollars” has prized possession stolen from pop-up camping trailer https://news.bitcoin.com/...
@jduffyrice
Josie Duffy Rice on x
Can someone explain https://twitter.com/...
@alexvtunzelmann
Alex von Tunzelmann on x
“Worth”, lol https://twitter.com/...
@beaniemaxi
Beanie on x
8 more Bored Apes and 7 Mutants have been frozen by OpenSea following another fake link phishing attack. This one costing the victim several million dollars. Be careful out there folks. https://twitter.com/...
@azninsect
@azninsect on x
Weird that Opensea can easily freeze transactions involving shitty ape avatars, but can't do anything about the avalanche of minted NFTs of stolen art on their platform. https://twitter.com/...
@pixelatedboat
@pixelatedboat on x
It's weird how all these people who paid thousands of dollars for a drawing of a monkey keep getting scammed
@coinbureau
@coinbureau on x
Sooo. How decentralised is Opensea? https://decrypt.co/...
@carnage4life
Dare Obasanjo on x
We're slowly going from the truth is on the blockchain to the truth is whatever OpenSea lists. Web3 is doing a speed run through how the Web 2.0 era centralized around FAANG. https://www.google.com/...
@vajolleratzii
@vajolleratzii on x
True decentralization was a meme because people who get hacked learn quickly that they don't actually like decentralization at all😂 The future will be pseudo-decentralized similarly to how #Bitcoin is only pseudo-anonymous https://twitter.com/...
@dsmart
Derek Smart on x
ICYMI👇 ps. So much for decentralization 🤷♂️ https://cointelegraph.com/...
@swearyanthony
Anthony B on x
So when NFT grifters steal art from deviantart or the like, OpenSea is like eh, too bad, enjoy filing paperwork for each one. Someone rips off the stupid ugly monkey cartoons, whoosh they immediately take action. https://www.theverge.com/...
@stonekettle
@stonekettle on x
The Future We Were Promised: an amazing world of flying cars, moon colonies, and universal peace where everyone is equal. The Actual Future: Real Fake Bored Ape Yacht Club crypto bros. https://twitter.com/...
@seldo
Laurie Voss on x
There are not one but *two* different NFT projects who simply take the Bored Apes NFTs and flip them horizontally and re-sell them. When crypto people are mocking crypto themselves, how long until the bottom drops out of this market? https://www.theverge.com/...
@riptari
@riptari on x
Can't wait for upside down apes https://twitter.com/...
@orinoxide
@orinoxide on x
The full story is even more hilarious. They're both copying high-priced apes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, flipping them horizontally, and minting them as new NFTs. :D https://www.theverge.com/...
@meanhash
@meanhash on x
Bold 2022 prediction: By the end of 2022 no one will want your NFT. https://www.theverge.com/...
@djackmanson
@djackmanson on x
Say what you like about NFTs, but in most fields of collecting, it takes decades for arguments about whether something is a REAL fake to get going. https://twitter.com/...
@quinndupont
Quinn DuPont on x
So here's the deal: yes, NFTs are reinventing property rights. But, without rich #trust and #identity solutions, they're just going to make work for IP lawyers. https://twitter.com/...